AIBU to expect the birthday cake booking date changed without extra charge?

I might campaign to the DoE to get a module added to the life skills section of school education to explain about small businesses and how a customer reserving a future time slot and then cancelling last minute costs that business time and thus money, as there are so many people who don’t get it. @PickNMixweit isn’t about the past work done, it’s about tomorrows paid work opportunity lost.

Yanbu. I'd expect a small charge for work to date but not 50%. I'm surprised people use these cake makers. You can get a great cake from a supermarket or M&S. Some of the 'home bakes' are dubious quality IME.

Ii think a 50% refund is a good result, especially as you cancelled last minute.

I think you get your 100 quid back and move on. the baker is a bit odd but you can't argue with stupid

just buy one from the supermarket or Costco, nobody (that matters) will really mind, judge or remember.

you don't need the agg. imagine posting about a birthday cake dilemma on Mumsnet - mad!

If the cake maker set aside the time to make the cake she should have presented the customer with a fully made cake then. If her time was allocated then finish the cake that was paid for, thus completing the contract.

The communication was poor. She shouldn’t have said she’d freeze the sponge implying that it was ok for later. By saying that she is telling customer she will hold the cake, she then gave it away yet it was paid for.

if she couldn’t move dates, she should have said, sorry I’ve allocated my time, when do you want to collect the cake. For all we know, the woman could have sold the cake onto someone else.

It’s a perishable item that you cancelled last minute through no fault of her own. She’d already spent time and money on ingredients.

Pay the lady for her job and don’t expect it for free.

She's offered a 50% refund, which I think is pretty generous in the circumstances. Why should she cancel or move the booking, especially at such short notice? It's not always as simple as that, and the OP was very fortunate that so many other suppliers were wiling and able to do so.

I get that it's frustrating for the OP to be out of pocket, but that's not the cake makers fault.

I do think though that the lack of Ts&Cs plus the comment about freezing the cake has added to the confusion.

I think she owes you the undecorated sponge for your money. If she wasn't able to cancel or move your booking then she should have delivered the cake! She intimidated she could reuse the sponge and had not yet decorated it so I'm actually in agreement that she should have produced something for the money or given you a refund or "store credit" of something towards a new one.

There was nothing ‘aggressive’ about my post. The baker is only charging 50% of the full amount, which covers time wasted and other bookings missed, she isn’t a thief. She should have offered the cake, but there are no terms or conditions agreed on either side and although it’s not OPs fault, she still cancelled very late on. There is no thief

She had made the cake , bought the perishable ingredients. Used her time and turned down other orders to fulfill yours. Of course you should pay

Are you always this aggressive? I simply said “maybe you missed it” not that you should read every post!

yes, I still stand by my point that by giving away an item someone has paid for to someone else is theft, because that is true.

the fact that the cake maker has now offered to make a second cake does not negate that first situation.

Why would I go back and read your entire posting history on the thread? I was responding to the post you just did, where you said it was theft, and that was in response to someone else who also posted after the follow up from OP 🤷‍♀️ you said it was theft before knowing what the baker was going to charge though, and you are still saying it after, so I was pointing out it is not theft.

I didn’t say the follow up was theft. I said allowing one person to pay for an item, not deliver it and give it to someone is theft.

I have also suggested the OP considers it as she paid 50% for the first cake that she never received and 100% for the new cake that she will receive fully baked and decorated - but maybe you missed that

The baker has offered OP 50% of the money back though, and considering OP cancelled the day before when the baker had already spent her time on this cake, that just is not theft.

There is no reason the cake maker couldn’t have offered to give the OP the cake she had already baked and was going to be decorating that evening.

essentially the OP had paid for an item that she hasn’t received and not only that, but it’s now been given away to someone else. That’s theft!

You could argue that had you known, you would have taken cake 1 given that you had paid for it

the baker should have been clear

You booked her time which she now can’t fill with paid work at such short notice. Yes there will be a little saving on the ingredients so I think it fair to charge slightly less than double the original quote. I make my own kids birthday cakes and don’t scrimp on ingredients but they are a tiny fraction of the true cost, maybe £10 or so.

👆🏻 this and other posts form cake makers nail it. She is a business, self employed and bases her income on her bookings. You booked and she blocked the time out for making and decorating the cake accordingly and, due to short notice, wasn’t able to resell that time. She may also have been limited on space available for storage which has to be factored in to the bookings that follow which is what did t allow her to freeze the sponge in the long run.

Then she should have offered the cake back to the OP since she had paid in full for it!!

I think offering you 50% back is actually very generous. I used to be a professional cake maker (recently retired), and under my T&Cs, final payment for celebration cakes had to be made 1 month before the date of delivery, and no refunds would be given in the event of cancellation. I did this because I was unlikely to get another order at short notice, but I regularly turned away orders as I was often fully booked.

That said, on the one occasion someone did cancel, I did refund the delivery charge and the cost of any ingredients that could be used at a future date. But that was done as a gesture of goodwill. I also offered to complete the cake for the required date so the customer could do with it what they wanted, but they turned this offer down.

A couple of times I did move the date of the cake, but this was done before the 1 month payment, and was only if I could fit it in with other orders. During covid I went out of my way to move wedding cake orders - some by as much as 3 years! - as it seemed like the right thing to do.

I think where your cake maker has gone wrong is to not have clear T&Cs, and to suggest freezing the cake, so I can see that this may have given the impression she could use it for your future date. But having said that, she's giving you a 50% refund on your order, whether or not you go on to order a new cake with her. I think that's more than fair, and in these circumstances, it really doesn't matter what she did with the original cake.

This is someone's career and time. No you shouldn't be getting a freebie and yes you should pay again, but she should have given you the sponge rather than someone else.

Sponge aside: You didn't just book the time that she actually used; you booked time that she couldn't then use on anyone else. So I can see that argument.

Cakes aren't cheap, I'd be devastated to have to pay twice. But it's not her fault that your child was ill; why should she be down a days wages?

However, totally agree that she should have given the sponge to you, if she wasn't going to freeze it.

I think I'd take the refund and run - and next time check T's and C's as this cakemaker clearly think she can charge pro prices but not deliver a pro service.

She SHOULD have clarified if you were wanting to postpone or cancel, and given you the options (keep the cake to a later date by freezing, deliver cake as is for you to decorate yourself later, etc etc).

It isn't unusual that customers do not communicate clearly - but the business dealing with each customer SHOULD and by offering to freeze and then giving it away, she has failed massively.

Of course you should pay, it was too short notice for her to take another booking.

You seem very very confused.